At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week, Ted Cruz responded to a question about marijuana legalization in Colorado by endorsing a federalist approach to the issue, reports Jacob Sullum for Forbes magazine.

“I actually think this is a great embodiment of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called ‘the laboratories of democracy,’” the Texas senator said. “If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that’s their prerogative. I personally don’t agree with it, but that’s their right.”

Those remarks seemed to contradict the position Cruz had taken a year before, when he criticized the Obama administration for failing to aggressively enforce the federal ban on marijuana in states that have legalized the drug for medical or recreational use.

Speaking at a Texas Public Policy Foundation conference in January 2014, he described the Justice Department’s prosecutorial restraint, which is designed to respect state policy choices, as an abuse of executive power.

Just a year ago, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized President Obama for allowing Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, reports Fusion.net.

Now, he’s basically in favor of the same approach.

“If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that’s their prerogative,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “I personally don’t agree with it, but that’s their right.”

The conference is a chance for potential presidential candidates to stake out ground for 2016 and marijuana could be prime turf. Cruz, who some consider a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has expressed openness to changing marijuana laws in the past.

At a January 2014 event in Texas, he said there are “some reasonable arguments on that issue.” But he also blasted the president for ignoring federal drug laws and allowing residents in Colorado and Washington to carry out their marijuana policies.